Command
Summary One of the more famous iterations of the Command & Conquer series of games. This tells the story of the Red Alert series. Story As The Soviet Union is beginning to crumble, Colonel Anatoly Cherdenko and General Nicolai Krukov unveil their top secret "time machine" project, with it they eliminate Professor Albert Einstein before he could aid the Soviet Union's bitter enemies, the Allied Nations. In the altered timeline, the Soviet Union is far more powerful, but Cherdenko (now the Premier) and Krukov will realize that they've created another power hungry faction, the Empire of The Rising Sun who has their own ambitions for world domination. Which faction will reign surpeme, nobody knows. Gameplay You play as an anonymous commander (as you can choose either the Allied Nations, the Soviet Union or the Empire of The Rising Sun). You must build your own powerful army of infantry, armored vehicles, navy and air force to help your faction have a permenant grip on the world. Game Modes Tutorial This mode is especially for those completely new to the game. You'll be introduced to the basic battle tanks for each of the 3 factions (the Allied Guardian Tank, the Soviet Hammer Tank and the Empire's Tsunami Tank) as they'll take you through not just the basics of the game but more strategic methods of winning over your opponent. Campaign Mode Choose from either the Allied Nations, the Soviet Union or the Empire of The Rising Sun and lead your chosen faction to victory over the other factions and have the world to be yours to Command & Conquer. Skirmish You can choose your faction, your battlefield and even your opponent as you build your force and defeat your opponent on the battlefield. Replay Theatre View all of the opening live-action scenes from each of the factions' campaign missions and even the ending for each faction. Options Tweak the game's graphics, sound, and gameplay to your liking in this mode. Johnny's reviews General Thoughts My brother turned me on (somewhat) to the Command & Conquer games (starting with Red Alert 2) because of the great live-action cut scenes and dynamic gameplay. It quickly became one of my favorite game franchises. Graphics The live-action cut scenes are very well done and the other cut scenes (with the opening cut scene). Though my computer can run the game but on low graphics, so I played the Playstation 3 version to play in high quality graphics and it was great as well (just like in MLB 2K10 with the lighting and shadows). Rating: 8.5 Music The soundtrack to this game is also very nicely done and has a lot of variety (with different levels of intensity and *really* fit the different levels of action of the game very nice). Of course Frank Klepacki did a nice job with the soundtrack (as he did with Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge). Rating: 9 Sound/Voice The sounds in this game are also well done. The explosions and the sounds of water and other ambient sounds in the environment surrounding the battlefield is also nicely done. The voices (of the in-game units and live-action actors/actresses) are also well done as they sound very authentic to their faction (especially with the Russian and Japanese accents). Rating: 9.5 Gameplay Unlike in Tom Clancy's EndWar the RTS in this game involves for the most part just one thing: Defeat your opponent on the battlefield. Though there are some missions which will involve more descrete movements (like the second Allied Nations mission) and even move in a timely fashion, becuase not completing a objective could mean utter mission failiure. The 3 factions also have their own unique army, creating equally unique strengths and weaknesses and even levels of difficulty (though you can choose the difficulty for each mission you play). Rating: 8.5 Replay Value Each of the 3 factions in this game have 9 missions (making a total of 27 missions) and you can also unlock the live-action cutscenes for the replay theatre and even record your very own battles in the skirmish mode. But once you're done conquering the world iwth all 3 factions and watched every live action cutscene in the game, there's not much else to do except play against each of the factions' 3 co-commanders (which have their very own way of strategy). Rating: 6 Live Action Cutscenes Before I talk about this catagory, I'll tell you the reason behind this. It has became a custom in Command & Conquer games of all kinds to have live action cutscenes. However, it is in the Red Alert series of games that features actors and actresses that are from lesser known movies and TV shows (especially those in the science fiction genre). Red Alert 2 had Ray Wise (from RoboCop), Barry Corbin (from WarGames) and Kari Wurher (from MTV's Remote Control). Red Alert 3 has taken a step further by featuring more known actors and actresses such as Tim Curry (from the Rocky Horror Picture Show) J.K. Simmons (from Spider-Man) Jonathan Price (from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) George Takei (from the original Star Trek series) and it even features professional fighters from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Randy Couture and Gina Carano. Though, the drawback to this is that some of the cast for the Empire of The Rising Sun (which is based on Japan) aren't even remotely Japanese (excpet for Mr. Takei who's *really* of Japanese heritage). Final Thoughts Despite some of the notable drawbacks to this game. This one is well worth your time and your gaming abilities. Though, it doesn have *some* hint of fanboy ridiculousness (as most of the actresses for this game are picked specifically for this concept). But overall a great game. Overall rating: 8